The Jurisprudential and Legal Mechanisms of Governmental Powers Control in the Thesis of the Absolute Guardianship of the Muslim Jurist

With the advent of the Islamic Revolution of Iran and the establishment of the Islamic Republic, Imam Khomeini, as an all-competent Shi’i Muslim jurist took the opportunity to formulate an innovative control mechanism within the framework of the thesis of the guardianship of the Muslim jurist in its absolute form and introduce it into the Islamic constitution in order to pave the ground for the Muslim jurist to act freely in accordance with the authorities defined under the rule of the Infallible Imams. This puts the powers governing in the Islamic Republic of Iran under the supervision and authority of a supreme Muslim jurist who is supposed to rule the Muslim community. The basic question is this: ‘Given the fact that the Muslim jurist or faqih has a vast authority in an Islamic government, how can such a government safeguard the laws and make the governmental powers follow their natural course? Taking the thesis of the absolute guardianship of the Muslim jurist as its theoretical basis, the article comes to the conclusion that “the guardianship of the Muslim jurist, seeking help from the legal controls over the powers in ways as anticipated in the Constitution. It also seek help from some other essential ones which are beyond the realm of laws concerned with the absolute authorities defined for the Muslim jurist under the title “solution of the problems of the government that cannot be resolved in usual ways (anticipated in the laws). These latter ones which are stipulated in the Constitution serve as a fortification against the government powers’ possible violations of law.